1988-10-11 ACT UP Demonstrations at the FDA

The militant AIDS activist organization ACT UP stages a day-long demonstration outside the offices of the Food and Drug Administration in Bethesda, Maryland. The 1500 demonstrators were protesting the secrecy and slowness of the process for approving new drugs to treat AIDS and the lack of involvement of people with AIDS in the process. Many of the demonstrators occupied the offices of the government agency and shut it down for the day. They also burned an effigy of President Ronald Reagan.